I'm sorry for the lack of chapters in the last couple months and the extremely long wait for this chapter, but I've been very busy with school, the national gymnastics meet, studying for finals, etc. Now that school is out and I don't have to worry about finals I will be adding chapters to this story more often. So please read and review. I hope to get my next chapter up in the next 2 weeks.
Chapter 18: Apocalypse Please, part 2
City of Divinity, Gantrithos
12th Cycle, 5th Division, 3rd Stage, 9th Age of Reclamation (Covenant Holy Calendar)
0040 hours, October 31, 2552 (UNSC Military Calendar)
"They must be holing themselves up within the city walls, Blue Leader," Linda said over the radio. The Spartans and Kado 'Toromee's squad of Elites were hunkered down behind a small hill several kilometers outside the Prophets' capital city. The allied army was holding position just barely within eyeshot of the Master Chief's team. Linda lay on the top of the hill with her S2 AM Sniper Rifle scoping the situation.
The City of Divinity was unlike anything the Humans had ever seen. Behind the thirty meter high walls were huge curvaceous buildings that resembled the shapes of their warships and were made of the same purple metal. Several of the bulbous structures rose over a kilometer into the air, but most were only about as tall as the trees they saw in the forest. Some were even standing at odd angles as opposed to vertical. Through her rifle's scope, Linda could see that the city's footprint was completely circular and that it had to be at least fifty kilometers across. In the center of the city was a large spherical building that Linda thought must be the capitol building. It was quite a sight, for the city lay in the middle of the plains alone. No major geological features could be seen in any direction. Several roads ran from the city in every direction from wide arches in the surrounding wall, which were the only weaknesses in the wall that Linda could spot.
"I don't see any activity," Linda continued. "The walls are too high to see over, and the only way into the city that I can see is through the main arches which are closed off by doors."
John contemplated the situation for a few moments before he spoke up, "And we have no air support so there's no way we can tell what's going on inside the city until we actually get in there. There will no doubt be artillery fire coming from over the wall when they see our army."
This was a tough situation. The Spartans were indeed offensive warriors and had done many infiltration missions, but this was completely different. In other missions like this they were able use sewers and other underground passages as an alternate route in, but they didn't have that option now. They would have to enter the city through the main gates.
John looked up at the sky for a moment while he thought. It looked different. He remembered that when they finally exited the huge forest he looked up and saw explosions and warships from both sides in the distance. Now the explosions had stopped and UNSC and Holy Crusader ships could be seen in low orbit over the planet. That meant that the Humans had just won the largest ship-to-ship battle in the history of the war.
The Chief suddenly got an idea.
"Fleet Admiral Hood, this is Master Chief Spartan one-one-seven," John called over the private COM link.
"This is Admiral Hood," came the reply. "Everything alright down there Chief?"
"Well, we're kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place right now, sir," the Master Chief explained. "The army is holding several kilometers outside the city right now and we have no options except a full-frontal attack. We sure could use some air support right about now if you could spare it, sir."
"Roger that, Chief," Hood acknowledged. "Since the fighting has stopped up here for the time being, we'll send some Longswords down for you. I'll see if the Arbiter can spare anything too. Just hang on tight for the time being. Hood out."
The Chief switched over to his team's frequency. "Looks like we will be getting air support after all. The fighting upstairs has stopped for now, so Lord Hood is gonna send some Longswords for aerial bombardments and hopefully the Arbiter can send us some Banshees and Seraphs. We just need to hang back here until they arrive. In the meantime, we need to keep monitoring the city to watch for any activity."
Six acknowledgement lights winked on John's HUD and 'Toromee and his Elites nodded. John then walked up the small hill, lay down next to Linda, and surveyed the field and city in front of them.
After several minutes, John heard a faint rumble in the distance behind him. He turned his head and saw what looked like a swarm of birds in the direction of the army. It quickly got closer and he could barely make out the shapes of Longswords and Seraphs in the cloud of fighters. As the fighters passed John's position, he finally realized the actual size of the force Admiral Hood and the Arbiter sent down. Over a thousand Longswords and Seraphs roared past only a few hundred meters above the ground and continued on towards the city.
John watched as the fighters neared the city. He waited for them to encounter hostile anti-air fire, but it never came. It was as if the city had been abandoned. The fighters dropped their payloads and arced up into a half loop and righted themselves as they sped away from the city.
"Blue Three, status?" John asked. A split second later he realized that he didn't need to ask the question. A dome of translucent, bright silver suddenly surrounded the city.
"Negative impact, Blue Leader," Linda reported. "There's an energy shield surrounding the entire city. All the ordnance is just exploding on the shield. Nothing's getting through."
"Damn, I was afraid of that," the Master Chief cursed. "But that explains the oddly defensive strategy and the lack of anti-air fire. We've gotta bring down that shield before we can even enter the city."
The Longswords and Seraphs turned around and headed for the city again. They dropped what was left of their payloads, flew straight up through the clouds above, and returned to the allied fleet orbiting above.
"It looks like the shield surrounds the wall too," Linda said.
John took a moment and thought, a rare occurrence for him especially in battle. After a few silent seconds an idea came to him and he switched to a private COM link with Sergeant Johnson.
"Johnson, mobilize the army," John ordered.
"Aye aye, Chief," came Johnson's reply.
"As you approach, do not fire at the city," the Chief explained. "There is an energy shield surrounding the city. However, if the Covenant fires at us return fire because that means the shield is down. If they do not fire at us, continue until you reach the city wall. My team and I will meet up with you as you pass our position."
"You got it, Chief," Johnson answered.
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The army rolled towards the city. Master Chief and his team were at the front leading the attack. The Chief's eyes never left the city in front of him making sure the Covenant didn't try an artillery strike to take them by surprise. Behind the Chief was about a million soldiers eager to shed some Covenant blood. A line of Scorpion battle tanks nearly half a kilometer long was at the head of the army followed by a line of Wraith mortar tanks. Several rows of Warthogs and Ghosts trailed behind the armor and finally the infantry at the rear. In addition, the Arbiter had sent a few hundred Banshees for air support during the battle and they moved along with the army above the infantry.
When they were about a kilometer from the wall, the Chief saw hundreds of blue dots rising above the city walls.
"Eyes on the sky!" the Chief shouted over the army-wide COM channel. "Return fire, and scatter!
John heard the Wraith tanks behind him discharge their plasma mortars and he saw them race towards the city. The enemy mortars slowly closed the gap between the city and the army and John realized that these were not ordinary Wraith mortars. These were nearly twice the size and had to be from stationary artillery guns. The large balls of blue flame were notoriously slow and allowed for the allied army to predict where they would land and quickly disperse from the area. As the army spread out, the plasma impacted the ground and sent boiling glass into the air.
John hoped the best for the army and continued to watch as their bombardment neared the city. He anticipated that they would need to keep the shield down to fire again, thus allowing their mortars through. He was right. The plasma from the Holy Crusaders smashed into the buildings close to the wall and some disappeared behind the wall. Molten metal from the towers rained down onto the streets below.
"Bombardment was successful, Chief," John heard Cortana's voice in his head. "But I would recommend moving at best speed towards the city."
The Master Chief didn't even need to ask why, because the Covenant fired again, but this was one long continuous volley.
"Charge the city!" John shouted.
With a little less than a kilometer to go, the army picked up its pace. The armor moved at full throttle towards the city and the infantry sprinted behind. The globs of superheated plasma splashed on the ground behind the army as they ran. The Holy Crusaders kept returning fire at the city aiming approximately where the hostile artillery was firing from. When they got within fifty meters of the wall the artillery stopped.
John and his team reached the wall first. The Chief turned back to face the army and saw the last of the plasma mortars strike the ground behind the infantry.
"Cortana, any casualties yet?" the Chief asked. Cortana had access to the biosigns of the entire army and monitored them constantly.
"Not yet, Chief," Cortana responded, "But I'm reading several minor injuries, most likely from burns. They should all be good to continue fighting though."
"Good," John said. "Now we need to find a way to break through one of the main gates. Our Scorpions have AP and HE rounds, correct?"
"They do indeed, Chief," Cortana answered.
"Good, we could use some of the Wraiths to start melting away the gate and use the Scorpions' Armor Piercing rounds to pierce the molten metal thus speeding up the melting and hopefully catching anyone dumb enough to stand behind the gate," the Chief explained. "Unless you have a better idea."
"You've been around me too long, Chief. You're starting to think like me," Cortana quipped. "The closest gate is about five hundred meters to your left. And remember, as long as we stay within fifty meters of the wall we're safe. The Covenant artillery can't target us this close to the wall; we're closer than their minimum range."
John grunted an acknowledgement and turned to Sergeant Johnson standing next to him. "Sergeant, I want you to take command of the armor and artillery outside the walls once we enter the city," he ordered.
"Sure thing," Johnson replied. "Give 'em hell in there, Chief."
The Master Chief jogged off towards the gate. He gathered several Wraiths and Scorpions to him when he reached the gate and gave them orders to breach it. The troops around the area dispersed so they wouldn't get splattered by flying globules of molten metal and the Wraiths began to fire. Plasma splashed on the gate, which was made of the same strange violet metal the Covenant usually used, and started to melt the metal and turn it red hot. The Chief gave the order for the Scorpions to start firing, and they obliged. The AP rounds smashed into the hot slag, but only left craters in their wakes. The gate was much thicker than the Chief anticipated. After several minutes, 90mm holes started to appear in the gate.
While the Scorpions and Wraiths coaxed the gate into giving way, thousands of troops stood at the flanks of the gate awaiting the Chief's signal to charge through. As the gate weakened, John ordered the tanks positioned in front of the gate to move around to the side to avoid taking the brunt of the fire that would come out of the gate. There would no doubt be thousands of Covenant troops inside the gate waiting for the allied forces to charge through. The Chief would have to be cautious of how he maneuvered the army.
"Cease fire!" the Chief shouted.
Utter silence followed the command. A meter wide hole at John's eye level was left in the gate. The metal was still red-hot.
"Toss some grenades through the hole," John whispered. "Keep them away from the hole."
John took three frag grenades in his gauntleted hand, primed them all, and tossed them through the hole as he sprinted past. A short roar of surprise escaped a Brute who must have seen the grenades. Several Marines and Grunts followed suit and tossed some more grenades through the hole.
"Clear the area. Let's make this hole bigger," the Master Chief said just before the grenades exploded.
Once the friendly forces had gotten to a safe distance, the tanks continued to widen the hole in the gate. John waited for the hole to reach about three meters across before he gave the order to charge.
A squad of overzealous Elites charged through the gate first firing their plasma rifles in all directions. Purple beams of light flashed down from nearby structures as the Elites tried to find targets. Only a few seconds passed before the squad of Elites lay dead in the street with pools of dark purple blood forming beneath their heads.
"Shit!" the Chief cursed. "Hold up! We've got snipers in the buildings!" John was quick to prevent any further unnecessary deaths, and began thinking of a plan to eliminate the snipers.
Before he could say anything, the Holy Crusader Wraiths began firing over the wall at the buildings. Hopefully they could take out some of the snipers or maybe distract them while the troops entered the city.
"Go go go!" John shouted. "And keep your eyes up!"
The Marines nearby started to pour through the hole six across shooting up at the buildings. After a while, Grunts and Elites mingled themselves in with the Marines. The purple beams continued to streak from the buildings, but they Jackal snipers couldn't keep up with the sheer number of troops pouring into the street.
"Spartans, come to my position ASAP," John said.
As the Master Chief waited for his team, he saw a pair of Hunters lumber through the gate with their massive shields up and fuel rod cannons at the ready. John watched them as the sniper beams reflected off their thick armor. The Hunters turned back to back and stood close enough to cover each other's weak spots on their backs. They glowed green as they charged their cannons and fired at the buildings.
"What do you need, Chief?" John heard Fred's voice. He turned around to see his Spartans lined up at attention.
"Linda and Nicholas, I need you two to help get rid of our Jackal sniper problem," the Chief said. "Get in there, find some cover, and do what you do best."
"Sir!" came the unison reply from the two expert snipers.
"The rest of you, get in there and do what you can," John continued. "We need to defend this gate and make sure a steady flow of troops gets through. This is our only entrance into the city."
With that, John saw six acknowledgement lights wink and the Spartans mingled in with the troops charging through the gate. The Chief followed close behind. When he entered the city he tried to survey the situation while staying behind what cover he could find. On either side of the main road were massive bulbous buildings that rose approximately six hundred meters into the sky. A blockade of rubble had been haphazardly constructed just before the first intersection a little over a hundred meters from the gate.
The city was very precisely laid out. Roads ran in concentric circles from the wall, with each circle being exactly one hundred seventeen meters, or one unit according to the Covenant, smaller than the last. Only eight straight roads ran from the surrounding wall to the center, which divided the city up into equally sized sections like a pie. At the center of the city was the High Council Chamber, a large sphere, four Covenant units in diameter, where the High Councils of Law, Religion, Society, and Military met. The heads of each Council were now considered to be the new Hierarchs to replace Truth, Mercy, and Regret. These Councils were the primary targets. The Spartans and Kado 'Toromee's team had to make their way twenty-five kilometers down the street, get into the Council Chamber and eliminate the four High Councils all without being detected. It was going to be tricky.
Behind the barricade by the first intersection a group of Jackals jumped up on top and set their energy shield in front of them so they overlapped. However, this didn't create much of a protective barrier because seconds later several rockets smashed into the loose barricade sending the Jackals flying through the air. The loose debris that made up the blockade scattered and the allied forces started to pour through. The troops split up at the intersection and went in every direction. Some went to find and disable artillery emplacements while the rest tried to hold parts of the city they had already taken.
"Light vehicles can start entering the city now," the Chief said over the radio. "And Johnson, I want those tanks bombarding the city."
The troops on the main road just inside the gate moved over to the side and made way for the light vehicles that now made their way through the gate. Several Warthogs, Ghosts, and Specters drove through the gate while infantry continued to pour in. The Banshees, which had stayed behind a ways to avoid the hostile artillery fire, flew overhead looking for dogfights.
Now the battle was going full force. Around many corners the UNSC and Holy Crusaders would meet up with a makeshift bunker of debris with Jackals and Brutes hiding in ambush. Sometimes the allies would turn a corner and find Covenant Ghosts and Specters waiting for them. Occasionally groups of Jackals would appear out of doorways and alleys to try and take the allied army by surprise. And always, the combined forces had to look to the sky, for snipers hid high up in every building and Drones picked off their soldiers as they fluttered through the air. But every group of Covenant they ran into was quickly eliminated with minimal casualties. The invasion of the city was moving along rapidly.
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Chamber of War, High Council Chamber, City of Divinity, Gantrithos
12th Cycle, 5th Division, 3rd Stage, 9th Age of Reclamation (Covenant Holy Calendar)
0230 hours, October 31, 2552 (UNSC Military Calendar)
"Our forces are being overwhelmed, and the enemy is moving incredibly fast through the streets of the city," explained the Lesser Prophet of Honor. "The enemy forces are disabling our artillery and bombarding the city with their own. And supposedly there is a group of Demons trying to make their way secretly to the Council Chamber. The combined forces of the Humans and the Heretics are overpowering us."
"Well what do you suggest we do, Honor?" asked the Prophet of Pity, head of the Council of Military. Pity and six other Prophets made up the Council. This was where military decisions were discussed before issuing them out to the armed forces of the Covenant.
"I say we release the Guardians on them," Honor proposed. "This is the sole reason we captured and trained several of them."
"Are we really in that desperate of a situation?" inquired Pity. "The Guardians should only be used as a last option. What about sending out the Honor Guard?"
"They have already been deployed, but enemy forces are too many. If we don't do something drastic soon, we will be overrun by the time the suns conceal themselves," said the Lesser Prophet.
"So be it," the head of the Council gravely replied. "Set loose the Guardians, send out the entire army, and make sure you cleanse the city of the infidels."
"Thank you, noble Pity," Honor stood up from his seat and bowed.
"But what are you going to do about the Demons?" Pity caught the Lesser Prophet before he left.
"We will have a surprise waiting for them if they ever reach the High Council Chamber," Honor answered with a crooked grin.
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Kado 'Toromee and his team of Covert Ops Sangheili met back up with the Master Chief and his Spartans inside the city. The team tended to stay in intersections, hunker down for a few minutes, and take out the Jackals who were sniping from the buildings. The invasion had been going as planned. In about six units the allied forces had controlled everything within a fifty unit radius. The Holy Crusader Wraiths were constantly bombarding the city with their plasma mortars. They would aim at the buildings and cause debris and molten metal to drop onto the enemy.
"'Toromee, any suggestions on how to get to the big building in the middle?" the Master Chief asked.
"Well, trying to maneuver through alleyways without being seen will prove to be nearly impossible," Kado answered. "We need to find some sort of passageway that will take us to the High Council Chamber."
"Are there underground passages like sewers or drains inside the city?" the Chief asked again.
"There might be. Look for anything that might indicate a passageway under the street," the Field Master replied.
Suddenly Kado heard what sounded like an earthquake, like the rubbing of stone upon stone.
"By the Gods!" 'Toromee exclaimed. "They've unleashed the Jorgothar upon us!"